The state has recently been rediscovered as an object of inquiry by a broad range of scholars. Reflecting the new vitality of the field of political anthropology, States of Imagination draws together the best of this recent critical thinking to explore the postcolonial state. Contributors focus on a variety of locations from Guatemala, Pakistan, and Peru to India and Ecuador; they study what the state looks like to those seeing it from the vantage points of rural schools, police departments, small villages, and the inside of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Focusing on the micropolitics of everyday state-making, the contributors examine the mythologies, paradoxes, and inconsistencies of the state through ethnographies of diverse postcolonial practices. They show how the authority of the state is constantly challenged from the local as well as the global and how growing demands to confer rights and recognition to ever more citizens, organizations, and institutions reveal a persistent myth of the state as a source of social order and an embodiment of popular sovereignty. Demonstrating the indispensable value of ethnographic work on the practices and the symbols of the state, States of Imagination showcases a range of studies and methods to provide insight into the diverse forms of the postcolonial state as an arena of both political and cultural struggle. This collection will interest students and scholars of anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, political science, and history.

Praise

"[A] most welcome addition to an important new anthropological project. . . . [T]he volume's eclectic character also contributes its greatest strength, that is, the offer of an unconstrained and dynamic conception of 'state'. For those wishing to explore such boundaries, or rather the lack thereof, States of Imagination is certainly a most fruitful place to begin." — John Friedman , Cambridge Anthropological Journal

"[T]his collection is a useful intervention in theories and research on the state and its modernist legacies. For that, I would recommend the book and its adoption in upper-undergraduate-and graduate-level classes." — Jyoti Puri, American Journal of Sociology

"As a whole, the book makes a significant contribution to the recent critical thinking and research on the state from political anthropology, and has much to offer to sociologists. It is uncommon to find such a tightly focused edited volume that is also brimming with intellectual vitality. Such quality work makes the reading highly rewarding." — Akiko Hashimoto , Contemporary Sociology

“This outstanding volume contains an excellent introductory discussion of current trends of thinking and research on the state. The first-rate articles by a mix of well- and less-known scholars are sophisticated, nuanced, and accessible.” — George Marcus, author of Ethnography Through Thick and Thin

“With its wealth of empirical description coming from all parts of the postcolonial world, this book is an immensely valuable contribution to the new ethnography of the state. Hansen and Stepputat have put together a richly varied but carefully organized and theoretically productive set of studies.” — Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University